1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device, such as a copying machine, and the like.
2. Background Information
When preparing handouts to be distributed at a meeting, for example, the number of copies needed will be estimated in advance before they are actually printed. If there is an insufficient number of handouts due to an increase in the number of participants after the start of the meeting, additional copies of a handout that has already been copied will be made. However, the previously copied handout is apt to be stapled together, and thus it will be necessary to remove the staples in order to make copies. Also, hand-written notes may have already been made on the handout to be copied, and thus these hand-written notes will also be copied if the handout is copied as it is.
A device shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-331294 has been developed, in which a command to store print data and the effective period of the print data are transmitted to a printer together with the print data, the print data and the effective period are stored in a storage unit within the printer, and the print data can be printed during the effective period. However, in this device, it is necessary to transmit a command to store print data and the effective period of the print data, together with the print data, in order to store the print data in the storage. See also Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-225255.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an image forming device capable of holding print data in a nonvolatile memory when the desired number of prints to be printed is greater than a previously set predetermined value, and thus allow additional printing of the print data to be easily performed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image forming device capable of holding original document image data in a nonvolatile memory when the desired number of copies is greater than a previously set predetermined value, and thus allow additional printing of the original image data to be easily performed.